Queen Bey is apparently an immense perfectionist – and considering she’s a Virgo, and one of the most successful artists of all time, we believe it. In a continuation of one of her most perfection-driven creative collaborations, Beyoncé and Olivier Rousteing have teamed up to bring a sartorial component to her seventh studio album, the highly anticipated ‘Renaissance’. In 2018, Balmain (of which Olivier remains at the helm) was responsible for every garment across that iconic headlining of Coachella – so, ‘Renaissance Couture’ expands on this, sanctifying the rich, visual language that has embellished Beyoncé’s decades long career. 

The story goes like this; Olivier found himself immersed in Renaissance while sketching – the album, a backdrop to the last few days before European summer holidays. Out of nowhere, he began to weave the lyrics around the sketches; imbuing each one with the energy of what each song was revealing to him in sartorial form.  As Olivier explains to Vogue, he was not willing to simply sit on them, “I contacted Marni [Senofonte, Beyoncé’s stylist ] and B. And I said, ‘honestly, I want to create a couture collection with you.’ And they were like: ‘Wow, that’s a big surprise.’” What ensued thereafter was a dream for Olivier – not only did Beyoncé co-sign the idea, she and Marni embarked on an intimate co-designer partnership with Balmain; taking them from 50 looks, down to a tightly edited 17 looks as companion visions of the track-list of Renaissance. The result is a feat of fashion-saturated dreams, least not accompanied by the cultural significance of the collection, as Olivier stated, “This appears to be the first time that a Black woman has overseen the couture offering from an historic Parisian house. And those designs were created in partnership with the first Black man to ever oversee all the collections at an historic Parisian house. Let’s hope those two firsts help inspire plenty of others…Thank you, Beyoncé.” Historical – huge – major. We absolutely love to see it. 

Head to Vogue to read the full and exclusive breakdown by Olivier of 12 of the 17 looks.

Look 9 “Virgo’ Groove”, Look 10 “Move”, Look 12 “Thique”, Look 13 “All Up In Your Mind”, Look 15 “Pure Honey”.

All images via Vogue and Courtesy of Balmain.

Written by: Holly Beaton